Performance Testing of a Road Bridge Deck Containing Flat Rail Wagons

A road bridge containing disused flatbed rail wagons as the primary deck superstructure was performance tested on a low-volume, high-axle load traffic road in Queensland, Australia, and some key results are presented in this paper. A fully laden truck of total weight 28.88% of the serviceability design load prescribed in the Australian bridge code was used; its wheel positions were accurately captured using a high-speed camera and synchronized with the real-time deflections and strains measured at the critical members of the flat rail wagons. The strains remained well below the yield and narrated the existence of composite action between the RC slab pavement and the wagon deck. A three-dimensional grillage model was developed and calibrated using the test data, which established the structural adequacy of the rail wagons and the positive contribution of the RC slab pavement to resist high-axle traffic loads on a single lane bridge in the low-volume road network.